As reported in the latest edition of PR Week, ipoints.co.uk, the rewards-based online shopping portal has appointed Diffusion to create and implement a social media campaign aimed at driving consumer traffic to their web site. Our campaign will target consumers across a range of platforms to educate them on the benefits of collecting points for their day-to-day shopping online, and redeeming them for rewards. We will also be integrating traditional media outreach to build wider brand awareness amongst consumers.

ipoints.co.uk was founded in 2000. It is owned by European online marketing specialist Maximiles and counts more than two million members who use the UK portal to collect points and redeem rewards for their day-to-day shopping.

We’re looking forward to working with ipoints.co.uk to drive quantifiable traffic to the site through social media and to building wider brand awareness through traditional media.

This week’s issue of PR Week takes an in-depth look at the BNP’s success at the recent European elections and asks a straightforward question - was enough done by the main political parties to prevent their breakthrough? My own view, shared by other industry colleagues, is that a communication strategy based on the premise that if we simply ignore the BNP they will just disappear has clearly failed.  A new approach is now needed, focussed on countering BNP propaganda whenever and wherever it appears, with a far more proactive stance taken by all mainstream political parties.  This includes online.

While I agree completely that there is no substitute for knocking on doors and talking to voters directly, the inability of the BNP to use the mainstream media as a mouthpiece, makes the internet a key component of its campaigning strategy. The online world will therefore become a key battleground in fighting extremism.

I was given the opportunity to debate these issues further with Luke Pollard, an account director at PR consultancy Edelman, as well as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party. You can watch our discussion in the PR Week video podcast below.

Following the G20 protests, the death of Ian Tomlinson and two police officers being caught making controversial comments on Facebook, the Metropolitan Police has been battling a storm of negative publicity. This has been driven and perpetuated in the traditional media by ever more revelations emerging through YouTube and other social media platforms.

The challenge faced by the Met shows that no organisation, whether in the corporate, consumer or public sector is immune from the threats and opportunities posed by social media. When an organisation’s reputation is at risk, not monitoring for threats online - at the very least - will in end up costing more in the long run, with greater investment required to regain lost trust.

You can read my advice on how the Met should combat the recent negative press in this week’s PR Week.

Coverzones, a small business insurance comparison and policy management site has appointed Diffusion to develop and implement an integrated communications campaign across social and traditional media.

A completely impartial service, Coverzones lets small business owners compare, buy and manage bespoke business insurance policies online. Over the coming months we will be identifying and engaging with small business owner communities through social media to drive traffic to Coverzones.com while also implementing and issues-based traditional media campaign to build greater brand awareness in national and small business press.

Coverzones is an extremely useful service for small business owners and we’re looking forward to using a range of online and traditional media tactics to build greater brand awareness and drive website traffic.

Diffusion Managing Director Daljit Bhurji has been chosen to feature in PR Week’s Power Book, the “definitive directory of the most powerful and influential PR practitioners in the UK”. The Power Book was launched at an exclusive reception on Wednesday night at new private members club Paramount, with amazing views across London from the 31^st floor of Centre Point.

Acknowledging the launch of Diffusion since he appeared in last year’s Power Book, his entry states that “Nobody does digital better than this online PR and social media expert.”  The 2009 Power Book also see’s Matthew Freud take the number one spot with the likes of Max Clifford and Andy Coulson also making the Top Ten.  You can read and download the full Power Book via the PR Week website here.

As reported by PR Week this morning, Diffusion has been appointed by Beatbullying to implement a social media strategy aimed at increasing awareness and engagement with young people, adults and key political figures online. As part of the project, we are also going to be providing traditional media press office support with consumer and youth media as part of what is a fully integrated communications campaign.

In the past seven years, Beatbullying has worked directly and indirectly with 1.5million young people, helping and supporting those being buillied, re-educating and changing the behaviour of those who bully and preventing bullying in schools and communities across the UK.  

Through their work with young people, Beatbullying understands that young people spend more time online than they do consuming traditional media, and using the online and offline media channels in the right combination is key to ensuring their message cuts through and achieves behavioural change. It’s going to be a busy time ahead and there are lots of exciting things planned, all of which I’m sure you hear about in due course.

It’s often difficult to pinpoint moments when new online services cross the chasm and become mainstream. Yesterday’s ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ was one such moment for Twitter.

The momentum behind Twitter has been building for a while now. Last April saw Downing St launch its own feed, which has now attracted almost 20,000 followers and key media including the BBC, Guardian and FT have used Twitter updates to not only disseminate news, but to drive all important traffic to their websites.  Twitter is becoming a core online communication tool, with Boris Johnson for example, launching a Mayor of London Twitter feed last week and David Cameron answering questions posted on Twitter, during a live webcast discussing his green agenda.

However, arguably it’s been the power of celebrity endorsement which has propelled Twitter into the national consciousness.  Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry have in the UK become the services most important advocates - even inspiring the Mail on Sunday of all papers, to devout half a page to a rather dismissive article about the service a few weekends back.  You can watch them both discussing their love of Twitter on Ross’ show below - seen by at least 5.1 million viewers according to the BBC.

Ross and Fry have been joined by a growing international list of sports stars and pop stars, who in contrast to Facebook, have started using Twitter long before the majority of their fans.  So will all this massive amount of free PR be enough to turn Twitter into the success story of recession-hit 2009?

Well, as ever the hype will need to meet the reality.  The latest statistics from Hitwise show that Twitter was one of the fastest growing sites of 2008 with a 10-fold increase in traffic in the past 12-months. Given the amount of glitches which have afflicted and continue to afflict the service, it would be generous to say that this growth has taken the company ‘by surprise’.  For me, Twitter really comes into its own during big events, such as Macworld, CES or Barack Obama’s inauguration and this is exactly when Twitter decides to crash under the weight of traffic. This isn’t acceptable or feasible going forward. While early adopters grudgingly accept that new online services may have teething troubles, the mainstream public will not be so patient or forgiving.

This year Twitter is firstly going to need to make a rapid and significant investment in its infrastructure, if it’s to cope with potentially millions of new users.  Secondly, for an online service designed to connect people and share information it is beyond ridiculous that Twitter has also been unable to fix its search functionality. Twitter users need to be able to find each other and track what is being said about their favourite subjects. This investment will be ongoing and expensive which means that Twitter will finally have to bite the bullet and implement a revenue generating business model – whether ad-funded, subscription or a mixture of both.

For Twitter’s fanatical users it’s obviously exciting that everyone is finally taking about it, but to paraphrase David Ogilvy, all this great PR could  just end up killing a bad product faster.  In 2009 Twitter needs to get serious or risk crashing permanently under its own success.

Thanks to Techcrunch for the footage below

Diffusion’s 2009 Graduate Scheme is now open, for more information and to download an application form please visit our graduate careers page here. Remember, the closing date is 13th February.

With a new year ahead of you it’s perfectly natural to be contemplating whether you are in the right job.  Are you working for clients you love, in a culture that is constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of PR? Is your career where you want to it to be and can you see a clear path to promotion ahead of you? Is your employer investing in you to make sure you have the digital communication skills which are essential for effective PR today?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, perhaps now’s the time to see what fresh opportunities are out there? Here at Diffusion, we are looking for another Senior Campaign Executive to join our seven-strong team in early 2009.  After 18-months in PR, you will have a Blackberry bursting with media contacts across the digital media, marketing, technology and national press. You will have a real interest in how brands are using the web to engage with stakeholders and a real desire to represent clients across a wide range of industry sectors, from hot digital start-ups to global consumer brands.

At Diffusion, you’ll not only get job satisfaction from doing brilliant work with great colleagues for fantastic clients, though we think that always helps. Through our commitment to Talent Management we offer fast-track career development to the brightest and a tailored training programme. And it goes without saying that your hard work and commitment will be rewarded with a market leading salary and benefits package. So if you want to spend 2009 and beyond working for one of the fastest-growing and most talked about agencies of 2008, we’d love to hear from you!

To apply and for further information, please send your CV to daljit.bhurji@diffusionpr.com. For more information on our Talent Management approach and benefits packages click here.

Closing date: 23 January 2009

No recruitment agencies please.